"Christmas at the Movies"

Our Christmas Program week continued on Thursday with Camden's school program. We weren't sure if we were going to be attending it though. On Wednesday of last week Camden came down with croup for the second time in 3 weeks. I knew he needed to go to school on Thursday in order to attend his program. I ended up keeping him home in the morning (which he wasn't happy about because they were taking a "field trip" to the high school auditorium to practice) and letting him go in the afternoon. As I expected the Program was well done by both the music teacher and the kids and Camden did his best despite not feeling well. Memaw and Papaw Q. took him out for an ice cream treat afterwards.

They are singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Camden is the sixth one from the right.

Now he is the seventh one from the right.

Here is how Cooper spent most of his time watching the program.

Carson's Christmas Program

We were lucky to get Carson's program in. Monday was when he was suppose to have his program but we had a snow day instead which also meant his program was canceled. This was one snow day that was initially frowned upon rather than celebrated. Thankfully though, they were able to reschedule it for Wednesday night. Carson's acting debut was in Act I, The Story of Christmas. He followed in his big brother's footsteps and played the part of one of the three wisemen.

This was when he was walking in. He was so excited to see us all there watching him.

Singing "Away in the Manger".

Getting ready to follow "the brightest star in the nighttime sky" (the "star" is in the picture above). They had to follow the star all around the room until finally greeting baby Jesus.

Act II, The Story of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. Singing "C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S".

Avery was too cute not to include.  They were singing "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree".   She also sang a solo.  I'm always so impressed with the Preschool Program.  Mrs. Russell and all of the teachers do an awesome job preparing the kiddos.  They start practicing way before the Christmas season so I always get to hear all about how they are practicing and what songs they are singing. By the time the program is here we are all excited to see their hard work pay off.     

Oh, Christmas Tree...

The weekend after Thanksgiving we always pick out our tree and decorate it. This year was no different. We enjoyed an afternoon of Christmas music, Christmas movies..."Christmas Vacation" (my personal favorite), and just getting the house all decorated for Christmas.

Carson helping cut the netting off of the tree.

oh the anticipation....

 They love seeing which one is their own ornament and which ones were mine from when I was little. Every year the boys get at least one ornament for Christmas and now that they each have quite a few, it is exciting to hang them up.

This is the extent of Cooper's participation. He wasn't too into hanging them on the tree.  He had a meltdown when he spotted a Thomas the Train ornament and couldn't part with it.  He was more into dancing to the Christmas music and watching his brothers...just taking it all in this year.

Learning to decorate beyond the bottom third of the tree.  

  Even though Cooper didn't like decorating the tree, he does love his tree.  He thinks he is the only one entitled to turn on the tree lights (and all other Christmas lights in our house).  It is the first thing he does in the morning and whenever we leave or come home.   

Cooper's 2nd Birthday

Saturday we celebrated Cooper's 2nd birthday with all things Curious George. George is a big hit with all 3 boys. They love the books, the PBS show, and the movie. It was so cute to see how excited Cooper was for his birthday party. All he talked about was who was coming and the candles on his monkey cake. And once we picked up the balloons, they became the topic of his conversations. I've always said that once I became a parent my kids' birthdays were my absolute favorite days of the year, and seeing the twinkle in Cooper's eyes all day long knowing that all the excitement was for him reminded me why I stress so much to make their day as perfect for them as possible.
**More photos are in the web albums**

Curious George likes to paint on the walls...so I put up butcher paper so the kids could color on the walls...which they all enjoyed.  Cooper apparently thought it might be fun to color on Bennett as well.

Cooper is a sweet little boy but he can be sneaky...and here he is sneaking a swipe of icing off his cake:)  I guess he is allowed since it is his birthday.

He had this shy little smile on his face while we were singing to him. He wouldn't look up at anyone but he was happy:)

Digging into his banana cake and ice cream...YUM!

Showing us how old he is now!

 He's all partied out but still not letting go of his balloons.  He has been carrying them around for 2 days. 

 This is on Sunday right before bed.  He was asking for more cake.  He hadn't had any and since it was his actual birthday I thought he deserved some.  His brothers were already in their room with Chris so it was just Cooper and me at the table enjoying a little quiet time and cake.  What I didn't know is all he really wanted was to blow out the candles again.

He insisted on me putting candles in his piece of cake and lighting them so he could blow them out again.  Just had to get one more celebration in before his day was over.  As soon as he blew them out, he pushed it away and said "done" and was ready for bed.  He didn't even take one bite!  This age can be challenging at times, but it is also times like this that I love and cherish.  

Bennett is 2!!

Saturday Bennett celebrated is 2nd birthday Cookie Monster style. In the morning Cooper and I attended a little celebration with 4 other 2 year olds. They made Cookie Monster puppets, ate some lunch, played, and had cupcakes and cookies.
**I posted 2 posts today...scroll down to see the other post**

Craft time...cookie monster puppets...2 year olds can never get enough glue!

Singing Happy Birthday!

He tried so hard to blow out his candles. He got a little help from some of his friends.

Loving every bite!

 In the evening we went back to Abby's for his family birthday party. 

New Baby Cousin

The cold and flu season is among us and the first cold of the season made its way into the Prather household. Everyone (but me) was sick all at the same time. Unfortunately it also happened at the same time Elly Rose was born. So finally after their colds ran their course, Chris and the boys got to meet the newest addition to the Ford Family...and Elly Rose was (and still is) a big hit with the boys. I think Camden and Carson were amazed to see just how little she is and love to hold her.

Cooper loves babies, so it was no surprise that he showed a lot of interest in her.

He likes to look at her tiny feet and put his big feet next to hers.

As rough as the boys often are, it was so cute to see how gentle they were with Elly Rose.

Carson loves to hold Elly Rose. It is quite amazing to see just how long he will hold her (sometimes longer than I get to hold her). He doesn't sit that still watching T.V.  Really!

First picture with all of the grandkids. 

Fall Break

We have been sooo busy and I have too many pictures that I want to post. So in order to catch up I put all of pictures from the past couple of weeks in the web albums. We had a great time last week and weekend decorating cookies, carving our pumpkin, going to Guffey Acres with my family, and finally Trick-or-Treating on Sunday. Feel free to check out more pics in the web albums.

Camden's rock star hair!!! Even on this windy day his hair was still standing when I picked him up.

Last week was Red Ribbon Week at school. The theme was "OLG Rocks Drug Free". In order to celebrate, the students wore their favorite rock star shirt on Monday, Tuesday they could have rock star hair and Wednesday was Spirit Wear Day.

Their Jack-o-lantern they did almost all on their own. Carson loved taking all of the "guts" out, Camden did the tracing and carving (with very little help from mom or dad) and Cooper just hung out and enjoyed the fun.

Three very successful trick-or-treaters...really, how could you say no to these cute boys?? There were more houses than they could go to. They wore themselves out. We spent Halloween with Perezs and walked around their neighborhood and really enjoyed watching the excitement in the kids going from house to house.

Cooper fully understood what to do. He was so cute to watch...always taking his time walking up to the house, getting his candy, saying "thank you" in his sweet voice and walking back...and he rarely missed out on a house. He was so proud to be a yellow crayon. It is by far his favorite color and if you asked him what he was going to be for Halloween, he replied "Yellow" with a big smile on his face. We owe a great big THANKS to Memaw Q. for making his costume. She did an awesome job:)

 Sorting out their loot.  They were very proud of their night.

Carson is in his own little world with his candy.

Carson's Fall Party

Carson's class had their fall party. Cooper and I tagged along for some preschool fun. We started our morning off with a brisk hayride around the church/school's campus and stopping to pick out a pumpkin. We completed the morning with some crafts, a decorated cookie, and Halloween stories and songs.

On marks...get set....GO!!!

They are so thoughtful and always include the siblings. Carson hand-picked this one for Cooper.

Carson liked his pumpkin but didn't want to hold it because it was too cold.

Pumpkin crafts!

 Cooper was having so much fun...he totally thinks he's ready for school.  And who wouldn't if all it involved was picking out a pumpkin, eating a cookie, and playing with play-doh for the first time (he cried when it was time to put it away)?  He loved the play-doh.  

Stoney Creek Farms...

A couple of weeks ago we made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. This was the 6th year (and 5th year with Perezs)! We had lots of fun despite it being the busiest we have ever seen it. It was a gorgeous day for it which probably contributed to the popularity of the event. We took our hayride out to get our pumpkins and did a few activities around the farm.

Love the hayride. There were lots of pumpkins to choose from and all of the kids picked out their favorite. If you look closely Sonia chose a green one and they all thought it was a watermelon:)

Of course this is all new for Cooper. He is always so good at events like this and really was taking it all in.

One of the activities there is riding the pumpkin train. Cooper was the only one who did this one this year (the big boys chose different activities). In the event he might get scared of going by himself (their idea), Camden and Carson walked along side of him throughout the train ride. He was happy and they were happy so it all worked out.

We ended our afternoon with a little fishing.

Last Soccer Games...

Last weekend the boys finished up their soccer seasons.  Both boys had lots of fun playing and learned some drills they can do to practice.  I will miss watching them play, but we will soon be onto the next sport...BASKETBALL.  Camden is about to experience a rite of passage of every Hoosier born boy.  As former basketball players ourselves Chris and I  have waited 5 years and 9 months to sign Camden up for his first basketball season.  We have been very patient.  It seems every other sport starts at the age of 3. We never thought we would sit through 2 seasons of soccer before ever watching him play basketball.  But on the other hand we love sports in general and have grown to like watching Camden and Carson play soccer.  Our competitive personalities take over even though we know very little about the sport. 

 

My Aunt Cindy, Kaylin, and Elissa were so nice and brought Grandpa up to watch the boys' last soccer game.  Cooper stayed busy with him for awhile by taking his hat on and off.  It is always a pleasure to get to spend some time with him when he is visiting from Florida.

 Camden heading towards the goal.  He really enjoyed his season and had some great coaches.

 Great season Bears!! 

 Carson last game was against Nadia's (#3) team.  After some pre-game discussion we were able to get Nadia and Carson on the same field.  I think they both played the hardest they've played all season all because they got to play against each other.  They were so happy.

 I can't think of a better way to end the season.  A little side note:  Carson was chosen by his coaches as one of two players to represent his team in the All-Star game today.  He got an All-Star T-shirt and scored a goal for his team today, so very proud of him:)